Book Review: Lean In

If you haven’t read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead yet, get to it ASAP. I can’t believe it took me so long to get to it myself – but I’m so glad I finally did.

While Sandberg is currently known as COO of Facebook, that may be the least of her accomplishments, if you can believe it. She is ranked on the Fortune list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business as well as one of Time‘s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Yes, the world.

Lean In, published in 2013, created an entire movement of the same name. And you better believe it’s still going strong.

In my opinion, this book should be required reading for everyone – females, males, businesspeople, stay-at-home parents, students, etc. The information in it is eye-opening for anyone living in our society. It’s not just facts, though. Sandberg’s perspective as an influential woman in business is invaluable.

There are so many important topics in Sandberg’s book that I won’t attempt to go into detail here. Instead, I’ll share with you some of my favorite lines from the book…

“But knowing that things could be worse should not stop us from trying to make them better.”

“For women, self-doubt becomes a form of self-defense. In order to protect ourselves from being disliked, we question our abilities and downplay our achievements, especially in the presence of others. We put ourselves down before others can.”

On the increase of women’s wages on Equal Pay Day 2011: “Forty years and eighteen cents. A dozen eggs have gone up ten times that amount.”

“Feminism wasn’t supposed to make us feel guilty, or prod us into constant competitions…it was supposed to make us free – to give us not only choices but the ability to make these choices without constantly feeling that we’d somehow gotten it wrong.”

“We all want the same thing: to feel comfortable with our choices and to feel validated by those around us. So let’s start by validating one another.”

“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

What are you waiting for? Head to your local library or nearest bookstore… and lean the hell in.